Prizzi's Honor (DVD)

Prizzi's Honour is a 1985 black comedy with Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner on top form. Adapted from Richard Condon's book, it tells of Charley Partanna (Nicholson), the hit man for the biggest Brooklyn mafia gang, and how he falls in love and marries Irene Walker (Turner), who is the hit woman of choice. The two live in bliss for a while, before events take a strange turn and complications mean that Walker is hired to take out Partanna. Thus ensues a complicated but darkly funny series of events which Nicholson really goes to town on. He manages to make his character simplify everything and rationalise the smallest and biggest things, from being targeted ...  Read the complete review

Charley Partanna is a hitman for a mob family, the Prizzis. Life is going well for him, he has good relations with his ex, Maerose Prizzi, his career is successful and he has just met the love of his life, a beautiful blonde called Irene. The only problem is that Irene isn't as innocent as she looks - she is following the same career path as Charley. Initially concerned, Charley decides to marry her to ensure that there is no trouble. Unfortunately, it is after the wedding that the problems begin. First of all, Irene is commissioned by Maerose's father to kill Charley. Then the Prizzis decide that she has to go. Will Irene go through with her commission? Will Charley try ...  Read the complete review

A rare attempt to film one of Richard Condon's novels, and a slick and entertaining one, with superb performances. Jack Nicholson is a loyal Mafia hitman who gets involved with another hired killer, a freelance (Kathleen Turner). The couple are involved in various machinations before eventually, inevitably, Turner's duplicitous nature means that the two will be facing each other. It's a laid-back, gently satiric film, with John Huston directing the comedy and action with a light touch for a man in his late seventies, while Anjelica Huston effectively relaunched her career with her performance as the scheming lady Godfather who effectively scuppers ...  Read the complete review